Jamie Bishop

I grew up in a blended family in Marysville, just 30 minutes outside Columbus. While I have many fond childhood memories, my favorite is meeting my husband. He was two years ahead of me in school. To this day, he jokingly claims my friend bullied him into asking me out at a school function.

I played competitive softball year-round from an early age, mostly because it was the only sport where I had any true skill. It paid off – I lettered in varsity all four years of high school, and my “16 and under” travel team won the National Softball Association World Series in Illinois!

Two teachers stand out. I was a creative kid, constantly writing stories, and my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Rose, nurtured that. On my last day of class, she told me she fully expected to read my stories in print one day. That encouragement continued in high school with my tenth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Staley. She mentored me, encouraged me to join the school magazine, and ultimately handed me my diploma at graduation. Looking back, their visions of me as a writer have come true in my scholarly work – just in a different way than any of us expected.

I originally wanted to be an orthodontist, which led me to apply to undergraduate programs at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and here at The Ohio State University. I ultimately chose Ohio State because it was close to my hometown and it had a dental school. However, during freshman orientation, I got cold feet after seeing the projected debt from a DDS program. So, I pivoted to dental hygiene—a decision I’m so glad I made, as it turned out to be my true calling. Once in the program, multiple faculty members encouraged me to specialize in education. 

By my senior year in the dental hygiene program, I knew I wanted to teach and pursue a master’s degree at some point. I chose to work in private practice and start a family first, before returning for my master’s in 2020. I’d already begun part-time clinical teaching at Ohio State, and I chose the master’s program because of my familiarity with the faculty and the ability to meet with them in person whenever questions arose.

Working in private practice and at CSCC helped make me the educator that I am today. I’ve had the pleasure of working as a clinician in both general and periodontal practices. And I’ve worked with many amazing dental hygienists and dentists who helped me grow in my skills and knowledge. Transitioning to an adjunct faculty role at CSCC allowed me to teach in both the classroom and the clinic. Experiencing that school’s approach and expectations –– which differed at times from Ohio State’s — was eye-opening. My biggest lesson through it all is to stay open-minded and always be willing to learn from others. It’s amazing how much you can grow when you’re receptive to different perspectives and techniques.

For one thing, we weren’t as digitized as we are now. We had printed PowerPoint slides to take notes on, physical textbooks, paper charts, and traditional film radiographs. Today’s students can access a vast amount of information on demand that my generation could not. That’s both a blessing and a challenge!

Hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back at negative experiences in my life through a new lens, I now realize those difficult moments shaped me into the person I am today. It’s often hard for students to see each moment as an opportunity to grow and learn. I would like them to understand that when their instructors give them a grade that’s lower than they might have liked, and when they get feedback that suggests ways to improve, it’s not because their teachers are being hypercritical. As faculty members, we genuinely want our students to succeed and develop into phenomenal clinicians with a strong moral compass.

I’m a homebody. If I never had to leave my house to do my job, I would do that. But since that’s impossible, I suppose I’d want to practice somewhere warm and sunny, surrounded by beautiful beaches and salty air.

I lost two of my grandparents when I was young. Neither of them had the chance to see me grow up, get married, start a family, or launch my career. I would love to sit down with them, introduce them to my family, and fill them in on my life.